FBI Produces More Domestic Drones Documents
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
By Lucy Stein/CREW
In response to congressional inquiries into its domestic drone surveillance program, the FBI repeatedly asserted in publicly available letters that as of July 2013 it had only used drones—or UAVs— in 10 cases since 2006. The hundreds of documents produced to CREW in response to CREW’s FOIA request and lawsuit, however, contain no information supporting this assertion.
The FBI also emphasized it “uses UAVs in very limited circumstances to conduct surveillance when there is a specific, operational need” and “does not, and has no plans to use UAVs to conduct general surveillance not related to a specific investigation or assessment.” (CREW-3497, CREW-3501, CREW-3503).
If anything, the documents produced to CREW thus far cast serious doubt on the FBI’s characterization of the scope and policies of its domestic drone program.
A synopsis of a multi-agency small drone conference written by an FBI Field and Flight Operations Unit employee in July 2009 contradicts the FBI’s claim to have “no plans to use UAVs to conduct general surveillance” and paints a very different picture of an agency intent on expanding the program.
The FBI employee writes: “There FAA restrictions effectively eviscerate most hope of the FBI operationally employing UASs to conduct the surveillance, photography, and communications relay missions being conducted daily by our manned aircraft fleet. This gloomy outlook contrasted starkly with the optimism felt by most conference participants…the biggest challenge to Bureau use of UASs is routine access to the [national airspace]. The status quo will not be resolved before 2012 at the earliest and the nature of that resolution is not predictable.” (CREW-3019)
As noted in CREW’s analysis of a previous FBI production, according to a September 2013 FBI white paper, the FBI views FAA national airspace restrictions as its “primary obstacle” to operating drones domestically, and “has initiated a joint effort with the FAA, DOJ and other federal law enforcement entities to establish a nationwide, standing Certificate of Authorization for federal law enforcement use, which will greatly expand the FBI’s potential deployment scenarios for UAVs.” (CREW-792)
Emails exchanged on the subject of how the FBI should respond to congressional inquiries show the agency scrambled to piece together its seemingly disingenuous, official response. In an email written on July 11, 2013 to Scott Bean, the Chief of the Technical Surveillance Section of the Operational Technology Division, Stephen Kelly, the FBI’s the Assistant Director of Office of Congressional Affairs, asks: “Can you let me know if you are familiar with the guidance from FAA that [redacted] found at the link below? These appear to be public and it may be helpful (though I suspect we operate under certain exceptions) to refer to them, to give folks comfort that we’re operating under clear, public guidelines. That being said, it is clear in these documents that there are significant limits on the use of UAVs as a result of the “observer” requirement, and this guidance indicates that generally means a limiting distance of 1 nautical mile (or so). Please let me know your thoughts, and thanks [redacted] for finding this.” (CREW-1715)
"These appear to be public and it may be helpful (though I suspect we operate under certain exceptions) to refer to them, to give folks comfort that we’re operating under clear, public guidelines."
In the letters sent to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), Stephen Kelly cites this stumbled-upon 2008 FAA guidance document as the only specific example of the purported policies governing the domestic drone surveillance program. (CREW-3502-03)
A December 2010 Airworthiness Statement contains the only unredacted mention—in hundreds of documents reviewed by CREW to date—of a specific number of FBI-operated drones: “we have tailored an airworthiness certification program for our three UAS…” (CREW-3025) Though this number’s mere appearance in the documents is noteworthy, the three drones referenced were likely not the only FBI drones in operation in 2010.
While the number of documents produced by the FBI in response to CREW’s domestic drone program FOIA and lawsuit continues to grow, scant details and still no answers have emerged amid the FBI’s heavy-handed redactions.
Previously:
- Judge Tells FBI Public Cares About Domestic Drone Use – Process Faster!
- New Public Documents Reveal FBI Failed to Follow Secretive Domestic Drone Protocol
- CREW Forces FBI to Release Documents on Domestic Drone Use
- Senator Wyden discusses drones, targeted killings, and the secret laws that allow them
